Origen

According to the origin of the name, savages live in woods. Savage derives from Latin silva ‘a wood’, the source also of the literary word sylvan (mid 16th century), and perhaps of sylph (mid 17th century), an imaginary spirit of the air. The overtones of savage are usually negative, suggesting violence and cruelty, but in the later 18th century the French writer and philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau ( 1712–78) conceived the idea of the noble savage, an idealized being without the corrupting influence of civilization, showing the natural goodness of humankind.